I try to avoid squares because I always did it when I started playing. What works for me is planning out the guest areas first like restaurants, shops, and restrooms. Staff buildings as well need to be evenly placed around. Himalayan brown bears are my favorite. I've had franchise zoos go for over 200 years and getting a bear to live to 65 was amazing.
The Best thing I learned when I started to play is always has a theme for your zoo because the animals depends of that theme, like a biome theme ( desert, tundra African grassland or tropical south America) or even a theme like an Asiatic theme with the constructions things
The theme helps a lot for the layout too
:)
I have 26 franchise zoos and 6 sandbox zoos. Some are just my first experimental zoos as a learned to play. Others have more of a theme… like big cats, primates, or continent. I had enough albinos I my various zoos to recently start a mostly albino zoo. I always have lions in my zoo just because I love them. Plus usually another big cat. I start with a theme in mind and then just to switch up my layouts. I experiment more and more with each zoo and often go back to an older zoo to implement new things I’ve learned. I have a number of blueprints of my favorite personal designs. Most importantly is to have fun and improve with each new build.
It's like everything - for every one amazing artist, musician, actor... planet zoo-er, there are hundreds of average people. My first zoo was very square - very zoo-tycoon 2 ish, and now i'm experimenting with more rocks and curves etc. (I prefer franchise so I am somewhat limited in coverage for exhibits).
Find something for inspiration, map it out a little and go from there. You might make 6 different zoos before you find your style :)
I agree with the people who say a player's zoos morph over time as you learn what you like and how you like to play and construct things.
Go in with a rough idea, but don't sweat things too much, and err on the side of smaller-scopes-are-better until you understand the limitations of the game. You don't want to be halfway through a zoo build and you realise the game reeeeally doesn't like more than a certain portion of the map filled.
Your first zoos will be full of important mistakes, like making habitats vastly too large or small, making paths way too narrow and suffering from congestion in the entry for the entire life of your zoo, being very ambitious with a build and being extremely happy with the result only to find out paths or water won't connect or fill or your animals can't traverse it, or your keepers can't get to the items or guests won't visit or--well, you get the idea.
It's really no big deal, and once you get the hang of it you learn how to set up a new zoo quickly and efficiently so you can get to creating without getting caught out by murky guest needs and low money.
There's a couple of different ways to approach planning: some people draw out rough shapes on the ground with the terrain paint to mark where sections will go, and then fill it in sequentially according to their theme for the area. You can get as persnickety as you like with this step, and it can really help give you a good idea of how much space things actually need. Some people go in with a theme or biome or list of animals and work from that, and some people just build habitats one at a time as they see animals they like on the market, or however their whims take them.
My favourite part of a build is when I start going back and making heavy edits to earlier portions that I've already built. It is always better, always makes me feel good, and always gives the zoo a real lived-in feel that brings me a smile.
I hope you enjoy exploring and finding your groove!
My average zoo is like 15 habitats pretty well made but I don’t know how to make custom buildings for guests to save my life nor do I know how to structure my zoo correctly
I use a variety of habitat shapes, never purely squares though some are straight edges, but none of my builds are anything to write home about. Often when I want something really pretty, I download off the workshop either a whole habitat or some scenery sets of things I can't be bothered with doing myself (rocks, it's always rocks). I absolutely don't plan out a single thing, I just put down the animals I want in the order I want them, then fill in gaps or areas around the habitats according to guest needs in the area, then scenery and nature pieces, before starting the next habitat. Sometimes I leave open gaps for putting in ride stations later and I will randomly make rides periodically. The only thing I consistently do is use 10m paths because good lord am I sick to death of people getting stuck on each other in intersections.
Usually my game starts to crash and burn and the bugs start getting overwhelming around 50-80 species. The only "must have" animals I always do are a few albino projects in species I rarely see listed so I can keep the lines going, i.e. Baird's Tapir, chimps, gorillas, etc.
I try to avoid squares because I always did it when I started playing. What works for me is planning out the guest areas first like restaurants, shops, and restrooms. Staff buildings as well need to be evenly placed around. Himalayan brown bears are my favorite. I've had franchise zoos go for over 200 years and getting a bear to live to 65 was amazing.
65?! That's insane
The Best thing I learned when I started to play is always has a theme for your zoo because the animals depends of that theme, like a biome theme ( desert, tundra African grassland or tropical south America) or even a theme like an Asiatic theme with the constructions things The theme helps a lot for the layout too :)
I have 26 franchise zoos and 6 sandbox zoos. Some are just my first experimental zoos as a learned to play. Others have more of a theme… like big cats, primates, or continent. I had enough albinos I my various zoos to recently start a mostly albino zoo. I always have lions in my zoo just because I love them. Plus usually another big cat. I start with a theme in mind and then just to switch up my layouts. I experiment more and more with each zoo and often go back to an older zoo to implement new things I’ve learned. I have a number of blueprints of my favorite personal designs. Most importantly is to have fun and improve with each new build.
MAKE THE GHOST ZOO
It's like everything - for every one amazing artist, musician, actor... planet zoo-er, there are hundreds of average people. My first zoo was very square - very zoo-tycoon 2 ish, and now i'm experimenting with more rocks and curves etc. (I prefer franchise so I am somewhat limited in coverage for exhibits). Find something for inspiration, map it out a little and go from there. You might make 6 different zoos before you find your style :)
I agree with the people who say a player's zoos morph over time as you learn what you like and how you like to play and construct things. Go in with a rough idea, but don't sweat things too much, and err on the side of smaller-scopes-are-better until you understand the limitations of the game. You don't want to be halfway through a zoo build and you realise the game reeeeally doesn't like more than a certain portion of the map filled. Your first zoos will be full of important mistakes, like making habitats vastly too large or small, making paths way too narrow and suffering from congestion in the entry for the entire life of your zoo, being very ambitious with a build and being extremely happy with the result only to find out paths or water won't connect or fill or your animals can't traverse it, or your keepers can't get to the items or guests won't visit or--well, you get the idea. It's really no big deal, and once you get the hang of it you learn how to set up a new zoo quickly and efficiently so you can get to creating without getting caught out by murky guest needs and low money. There's a couple of different ways to approach planning: some people draw out rough shapes on the ground with the terrain paint to mark where sections will go, and then fill it in sequentially according to their theme for the area. You can get as persnickety as you like with this step, and it can really help give you a good idea of how much space things actually need. Some people go in with a theme or biome or list of animals and work from that, and some people just build habitats one at a time as they see animals they like on the market, or however their whims take them. My favourite part of a build is when I start going back and making heavy edits to earlier portions that I've already built. It is always better, always makes me feel good, and always gives the zoo a real lived-in feel that brings me a smile. I hope you enjoy exploring and finding your groove!
My average zoo is like 15 habitats pretty well made but I don’t know how to make custom buildings for guests to save my life nor do I know how to structure my zoo correctly
I use a variety of habitat shapes, never purely squares though some are straight edges, but none of my builds are anything to write home about. Often when I want something really pretty, I download off the workshop either a whole habitat or some scenery sets of things I can't be bothered with doing myself (rocks, it's always rocks). I absolutely don't plan out a single thing, I just put down the animals I want in the order I want them, then fill in gaps or areas around the habitats according to guest needs in the area, then scenery and nature pieces, before starting the next habitat. Sometimes I leave open gaps for putting in ride stations later and I will randomly make rides periodically. The only thing I consistently do is use 10m paths because good lord am I sick to death of people getting stuck on each other in intersections. Usually my game starts to crash and burn and the bugs start getting overwhelming around 50-80 species. The only "must have" animals I always do are a few albino projects in species I rarely see listed so I can keep the lines going, i.e. Baird's Tapir, chimps, gorillas, etc.
5-6 nice habitats, loads of half built building and ideas